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Aside from making you feel good, the benefit of a random act of kindness can be extraordinary.

At a recent networking event, which turned out to be a BNI taster, the regional director used his closing remarks to used a powerful example to show how paying it forward can pay back. (At the time of writing it’s late, bear with me).

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Ninety plus years ago, an elderly gentleman and his wife walk into a hotel during the height of a trade show. He is told that there are no rooms available, but as he turns on his heel to leave, a young employee offers them a room. The following morning, on checking out, the elderly man asks for his card.

Three years later, the young hotel employee receives a letter in the mail with an airline ticket to New York. He meets the elderly gentleman outside an imposing building on 5th Avenue. He proceeds to hand over a set of keys to the new hotel he has built for the young man to run for him. The elderly gentleman was Henry J Hardenbergh, the employee George Boldt. The hotel: The Waldorf Astoria on 5th Avenue.

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So, what have you done to pay it forward? What could you do before the day is out?

Perhaps, something as trivial as letting a few extra cars to turn at junctions on your way home or giving your time to an important project to help someone out.

If paying it forward actually pays, and like me you believe in karma, doesn’t it become less desirable and more urgent and more essential?